Road Freight Commercial Manager

DHL; Abu Dhabi; On-site; Confidential; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Career development opportunities

Global company exposure

Job summary

DHL Global Forwarding UAE is seeking a Road Freight Commercial Manager to lead pricing, RFQ management and commercial strategy across the UAE and Gulf region. You will collaborate with Sales, Operations, Procurement and IT to design competitive solutions, optimize costs and win key business across LTL/FTL and cross-border lanes.

We require a strong track record in freight pricing, vendor management and data-driven decision making.

Qualifications

• Bachelor degree with relevant field and commercial/pricing experience.
• Significant experience in freight forwarding or logistics.
• Strong knowledge of UAE/GCC Road Freight, including LTL/FTL and cross-border transport.

Responsibilities

• Lead and own the Road Freight pricing function and provide direction to the Pricing team.
• Drive pricing performance through effective costing, tender management, automation and win-rate improvement.
• Manage RFQs, tenders and spot-quotation requirements from receipt to final submission.
• Coordinate with Procurement & Operations to secure transporter rates and capacity.
• Develop and optimize commercial strategies for intra-Gulf and cross-border lanes.
• Provide quantitative performance reporting and drive profitability improvements.

Skills

Commercial strategy & pricing

Pricing & RFQ management

Vendor management

Excel & reporting

Negotiation

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Logistics, Supply Chain, Transportation or related discipline

Tools

Excel

Auto costing tools

Pricing databases

Job description

Road Freight Commercial Manager - UAE

Would you like to be part of the most international company in the world? A company operating in more than 220 countries worldwide and has been pioneering cross-border express shipping since 1969. Would you like to be part of a business that connects people across the globe and want to make a difference? Then waste no time and join our amazing team at DHL Group. DHL Global Forwarding, Freight (DGFF) is the Group's air, ocean, and road freight specialist. We offer standardized transport as well as highly specialized end-to-end solutions to customers in a wide range of industries globally.

Job purpose:

• The Road Freight Commercial Manager drives commercial development, pricing effectiveness, & profitable growth for the UAE Road Freight product while supporting other Gulf countries specifically Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar & Saudi Arabia.
• The role will lead the Road Freight Commercial Center for the UAE supporting Gulf region, ensuring competitive and commercially sustainable pricing for domestic, intra-Gulf & international road freight opportunities while supporting Sales, Operations & other product teams in developing & retaining profitable business. The role also owns the right-fit customer solution, innovative service design & automated costing capability for the region.
• A key focus of the position is strengthening commercial discipline across LTL, FTL, & domestic trucking in country; improving RFQ effectiveness & hit ratio; developing competitive & innovative solutions for strategic trade lanes; managing transport vendors & spend through a quantitative, fact-based approach; & ensuring close alignment between customer requirements, transport procurement, operational capability, & profitability.
• The position should act as the commercial bridge between Sales, Road Freight Operations, Procurement & regional/global Road Freight stakeholders, converting market opportunities into competitive, executable & profitable solutions.

In this Road Freight Commercial Manager - UAE position

DHL Global Forwarding has an opening Road Freight Commercial Manager - UAE in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Join us in connecting people and improving lives!

Commercial Strategy & Business Development

• Develop & execute the UAE Road Freight commercial strategy in alignment with overall Road Freight & country objectives while supporting other Gulf countries
• Support strategic customer development and create competitive road freight solutions to maximize revenue, profitability, and market share.
• Identify growth opportunities across existing & new customers, products & trade lanes.
• Support Sales in customer acquisition, retention & development of strategic Road Freight accounts.
• Develop commercially attractive solutions covering LTL, FTL, domestic transportation & cross-border movements.
• Monitor market developments, competitor activity, capacity trends & customer requirements.
• Support development of new lanes & service offerings based on customer demand & network capability.
• Work closely with Gulf/regional stakeholders to develop cross-country commercial opportunities & a consistent market approach.
• Identify & resolve recurring issues & suggest modifications related to transport operations focusing on increasing effectiveness & efficiency, & controlling costs
• May provide functional guidance, advice or training to less experienced positions

Pricing & RFQ Management

• Lead & own the Road Freight pricing function & provide direction to the Pricing team.
• Lead Road Freight pricing and RFQ management to ensure competitive, profitable, and timely commercial solutions.
• Drive pricing performance through effective costing, tender management, automation, and continuous improvement of win rates and margins.
• Manage RFQs, tenders & spot-quotation requirements from receipt through final commercial submission.
• Own the end-to-end RFQ response process, including bid/no-bid decisions, solution design, costing, commercial review, submission & follow-up.
• Track & improve RFQ hit ratio (RFQs won vs. submitted) by customer, trade lane, country & quotation type, & act on the findings.
• Ensure pricing is competitive while protecting required margins & profitability.
• Establish a clear & consistent costing methodology & commercial validation for quotations
• Lead the design, implementation & continuous improvement of auto costing (automated, rule-based quotation costing) for Road Freight, working with IT, Finance, Procurement & Operations to keep rate & cost inputs accurate.
• Review major or strategic quotations before submission.
• Coordinate with Procurement & Operations to secure competitive transporter rates & sustainable capacity.
• Maintain & continuously improve pricing tools, rate databases & quotation processes.
• Analyze lost & won quotations, including hit ratio trends & price gap to competitors, to identify opportunities to improve competitiveness & conversion.
• Ensure timely turnaround of pricing requests & RFQs.

Trade Lane & Product Development

• Develop competitive pricing & commercial strategies for key intra-Gulf & cross-border corridors between the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman & KSA.
• Maintain a strong understanding of route structure, transit requirements, border considerations & carrier capacity.
• Work with Operations & Procurement to develop new Road Freight services & expand existing trade lanes.
• Identify opportunities to consolidate volumes & improve LTL network competitiveness.
• Develop solutions for complex or non-standard customer requirements together with operational stakeholders.

Customer Solutions & Innovation

• Ensure the right solution is offered to each customer by understanding requirements, volumes, service expectations & operational constraints before pricing & responding.
• Work on innovative road freight solutions (for example consolidation, multi-country & milk-run models, dedicated fleets, network-based LTL offerings & multimodal combinations) together with Operations, Procurement & other product teams.
• Review solution designs for operational feasibility & profitability before commitment to the customer.
• Capture customer & market feedback & turn it into new or improved service offerings.
• Promote reuse of successful solutions & best practices across Gulf countries.

Vendor Management & Spend Analysis

• Lead vendor (transporter) management for Road Freight together with Transport Procurement, including vendor selection, onboarding, rate negotiation, capacity commitments & contract terms.
• Establish vendor performance management using a quantitative scorecard covering cost competitiveness, service quality, on-time performance, capacity reliability, claims & compliance; hold regular performance reviews & drive improvement actions.
• Perform regular spend analysis by vendor, country, trade lane & service type to identify savings, consolidation, rate-benchmarking & vendor-mix opportunities.
• Monitor vendor concentration & dependency, & develop alternative capacity to protect service continuity & cost.
• Link vendor rates & spend data to the auto costing tool & rate databases so quotations reflect actual market & contracted costs.

Profitability & Performance Management

• Monitor the commercial performance & profitability of the Road Freight portfolio.
• Review pricing levels, margins, volumes & commercial performance by customer & trade lane.
• Identify underperforming business & initiate corrective commercial actions.
• Ensure quotations account appropriately for transportation costs & material cost volatility.
• Support budgeting, forecasting & business planning activities.
• Develop actionable commercial KPIs & provide regular performance updates to Road Freight management.
• Apply a quantitative approach to evaluate performance of the commercial function, the pricing team, vendors & customers, using defined targets & trend analysis.
• Report regularly on key metrics including RFQ hit ratio, margin & gross profit, volume, quotation turnaround time, vendor performance & spend against budget.
• Balance revenue growth with sustainable gross profit & operational feasibility.
• Maintain close collaboration with International Trucking, Domestic Trucking & relevant service-center teams.

Stakeholders

• Head of Road Freight UAE
• Road Freight Commercial/Pricing Team
• International & Domestic Trucking Operations
• Transport Procurement
• Transporters & vendors
• IT / Digital teams (auto costing & reporting tools)
• Customer Service
• Finance
• Regional/Gulf Road Freight & sales organization
• Other freight-product teams where integrated solutions are required

Management Responsibilities:

• Lead & manage the Road Freight Commercial Center, including the Pricing team.
• Set clear objectives, priorities & performance expectations for the team.
• Coach & develop team members to strengthen commercial, pricing, RFQ & Road Freight product competencies.

What we need from you!

Commercial negotiation & contract management

Strong commercial & business acumen

Carrier & vendor negotiation

Vendor performance management

Spend analysis

Microsoft Office & reporting skills

Strong problem-solving & decision-making capability

Business development & opportunity management

Quantitative & analytical performance measurement (KPIs, hit ratio, cost & margin analysis)

Solution design & innovation

Costing automation & pricing tools. Ability to work across multiple countries & cultures.

Education Level

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Logistics, Supply Chain, Transportation or a related discipline.
• Significant commercial/pricing experience within freight forwarding, transportation or logistics.
• Strong knowledge of UAE/GCC Road Freight, particularly FTL, LTL & cross-border transportation.
• Demonstrated experience in RFQs, tenders, costing & commercial negotiations.
• Experience in vendor management, spend analysis & vendor performance management.
• Experience designing customer solutions & driving innovation in transport or logistics services.
• Experience in implementing or managing automated costing/pricing tools.
• Strong understanding of transport cost structures, margins & profitability.
• Experience working across Sales, Operations & Procurement.
• Strong analytical capability & a quantitative, data-driven approach to measuring performance, with proficiency in Excel & commercial reporting tools.
• Excellent English communication & presentation skills.
• Previous team-management experience strongly preferred.

Experience Level

• More than 10 years with main experience in freight forwarding organization.

We offer:

• Opportunities in a global company where you can contribute your ideas and skills to move towards our shared goals.
• Possible further career development
• Competitive salary

Why join DHL Global Forwarding?

We are part of Deutsche Post DHL, the world's leading logistics provider with operations in over 220 countries. Visit our career site on the web at https://www.logistics.dhl/us-en/home/careers.html

Our Employer Certification

Our TOP EMPLOYER prestigious certification attests to our best-in-class efforts to attract and retain talent by fostering a positive work environment and encouraging personal and professional development among employees. The development of talented women in our organization will be a focus for us and an important part of our DGF Strategy 2025.

Our Vision

We aspire to become the undisputed leader in our industry, when people think of forwarding; we want them to think DGF because we have:

The largest global network

with more than 30,000 passionate employees

The most efficient processes and the fastest response times

The best solutions and best customer service

Our Mission

Excellence. Simply Delivered.

Our Purpose

Connecting People, improving lives.

Our Values

Respect & Results

Our Goals

Employer, Provider, and Investment of Choice, Living Responsibility

DHL Global Forwarding is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics.

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